Ikko Tanaka (1930–2002)
Traditional Japanse Dance “Nihon Buyo” for UCLA Asian Performing Arts Institute, 1981
Offset lithograph, 40 1/2 x 28 5/8" (102.9 x 72.7 cm)

In the early 1970s, in a small Manhattan novelty shop called Mythology Unlimited, I came across a handful of Japanese posters designed in the 1960s. The quality of printing, use of silkscreen, and bold colors and composition were dramatically different from the decorative style of many of the European Art Nouveau posters I was collecting at that time. Since then, I have built a collection of some 1,000 posters from the 1950s to the 2010s, designed by Japan’s most innovative designers.

Over eighty were on view from September 7, 2012 to January 6, 2013 at the Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the exhibition Elegance & Extravagance: Japanese Posters from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, organized by Peter Nisbet, then Chief Curator and now Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs, who also edited the catalogue.

Today I share a small sampling of my collection.

Hiroshi Ochi (1908–1974)
Nissan Landry [sic] Soap, 1954
Silkscreen, 27 3/8 x 19 3/4” (69.5 x 50.1 cm)

Ryuichi Yamashiro (1920–1997)
Trees, 1955
Silkscreen, 41 3/8 x 29” (105 x 73.7 cm)

Yusaku Kamekura (1915–1977)
The Olympic Torch Runner for Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games, 1964
Lithograph, 40 7/8 x 28 5/8” (103.8 x 72.7 cm)

Tadanori Yokoo (born 1936)
Poster for the book The City and Design, The Wonders of Life on Earth,
by Isamu Kurita, 1966
Silkscreen, 41 x 29” (104.1 x 73.7 cm)

Keiichi Tanaami (born 1936)
New York, 1967
Silkscreen, 40 1/4 x 28 7/8” (102.2 x 73.3 cm)

Shigeo Fukuda (1932–2009)
Poster for the exhibition Shigeo Fukuda, Keio Department Store, Tokyo, 1975
Silkscreen, 39 3/4 x 28 1/2” (101 x 71.2 cm)

Kazumasa Nagai (born 1929)
Expo ’75, International Ocean Exposition, Okinawa, Japan, 1975, 1975
Offset lithograph, 40 3/4 x 28 5/8” (103.5 x 72.7 cm)

Takenobu Igarashi (Japanese, born 1944)
Poster for the exhibition Identity, The Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1976
Offset lithograph, 40 1/2 x 28 5/8" (102.9 x 72.7 cm)

Kiyoshi Awazu (1929–2009)
”A New Spirit in Japan,” for the Jurako Company (textile producers), 1976
Offset lithograph, 40 5/8 x 28 5/8” (103.2 x 72.7 cm)

Koichi Sato (born 1944)
Mount Fuji in Spring, 1988
Lithograph, 28 5/8 x 40 1/2" (72.7 x 102.9 cm)

January 11, 2022